On May 22 as part of our Spring 2011 series on being Culturally Engaged, Matt Williams spoke about Personal Theology, specifically addressing eight aspects of sharing our faith. Through several blog posts, different members of our staff have addressed each of these eight aspects from their own personal experiences. Click here for the eight posts in this series.
This post is to wrap up this series on Personal Theology. At the end of the sermon on May 22, Matt challenged us with four questions. Watch the clip below, ponder over the questions, and let us know how God has and IS moving you!
The four questions Matt asked us to consider:
Are any of these eight aspects true of you?
Which one of them resonates the strongest with you?
Who have you told about this?
Who would benefit from knowing how you have experienced God and salvation in this way?
On May 22 as part of our Spring 2011 series on being Culturally Engaged, Matt Williams spoke about Personal Theology, specifically addressing eight aspects of sharing our faith. Through several blog posts, different members of our staff will be addressing each of these eight aspects from their own personal experiences. Click here for other posts in this series.
When I was in the eighth grade, I was sent to the principal’s office for trading baseball cards in the back of the science classroom while I was supposed to be working on a test. While it seems like a minor offense now, the 100 yard walk from the classroom to the office that day seemed like the Green Mile from death row to the electric chair. Complicating matters for me was the fact that the principal that I was going to visit was also my dad! I was much less concerned about how many detentions I would have to serve or how many “licks” I would get with the paddle than I was with how disappointed my dad would be with my behavior. I dreaded seeing the look on his face when I walked in with an office referral.
My principal/dad did the expected and gave me a detention (I opted out of the paddling since I had experienced that from him before and didn’t care to repeat it any more than necessary). However after he signed the paperwork he said something that I’ll never forget. He put his arm around me and told me that although there were consequences for what I had done (detention), he didn’t love me any less than he did before I came to the office. I think he sensed my fear of letting him down, so he also said that as far as he was concerned, the incident never happened. I appreciated what he said at the time, but it was years later before I realized that dad was giving me a great example of the gospel at that moment.
That situation from eighth grade came to mind a few weeks ago when Matt mentioned the idea of justification during his sermon on personal theology. Just as my dad freed me from the guilt of the minor thing that I had done, God has freed me from the guilt of every sin I have ever committed or will ever commit.
Like many Grace members, I was raised going to church every week and “prayed the prayer” when I was eight years old. At the time I knew the importance of the decision I was making, but in second grade my theology was definitely lacking and the opportunities for true life change were minimal. I did a pretty good job of following the “rules” of the works-based Christianity I was familiar with until I left for college. While I never questioned God’s existence, I spent several years where I definitely wasn’t bearing fruit and acting like a believer. My decisions during those years were completely selfish and based on whatever would bring ME comfort, happiness, or fulfillment.
After several years of this selfish living, I realized that I was on a dead-end path and looking for fulfillment in all the wrong places. I recognized that I had wasted years of my life that I should have spent serving the only One who can fulfill me. That realization was difficult because I had always viewed myself as a pretty good person. I had to come to grips with the fact that I was a sinner like everyone else and that my actions were why Jesus had to die on the cross.
Because I am a sinner, it can be very easy to be paralyzed by the embarrassment, guilt and shame that accompany some of my past actions. At times I have found myself saying, “Who am I to confront this friend of mine who is not following Christ? I did the same thing the whole time I was in college!” It is in those moments that I have to remind myself of my righteous status before God because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. I don’t have to be perfect because Jesus lived a perfect life FOR ME even though I am completely undeserving!
One of my favorite books, The Gospel Primer, gives us 30 reasons why we should preach the gospel to ourselves daily. One of those is the “sufficiency of the cross.” When I carry around the guilt and shame of my past sins, I am questioning my justification. By doing that, in essence, I am saying that Jesus’ brutal death on the cross wasn’t enough and that I also need to beat myself up a little to truly be righteous. As Matt reminded us, it is arrogant to think that I could do something so awful that God couldn’t handle it. There is no wake that I can create that Jesus can’t handle. I remind myself of this often and am eternally grateful for a Savior who is not only capable, but also willing to view me as righteous when I don’t deserve it!
-Scott Freeman, Community Groups Pastor/Pre-Marital Program
On May 22 as part of our Spring 2011 series on being Culturally Engaged, Matt Williams spoke about Personal Theology, specifically addressing eight aspects of sharing our faith. Through several blog posts, different members of our staff will be addressing each of these eight aspects from their own personal experiences. Click here for other posts in this series.
When it comes to sharing my story of faith with others, I often find myself day-dreaming out loud about the remaking of heaven and earth that I get to be a part of as a follower of Christ. I have been a Christian since early childhood, but for most of my life, the idea of “the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18) had no shaping impact on me. I came to Christ after realizing that I was broken and sinful and that there was nothing I could do to make that right. I understood I needed forgiveness and that only Jesus Christ could make me right with God, but for some reason, I rarely took time to think about what it means to be “fellow heirs with Christ”. Would you be excited if you discovered you were a co-heir to a king, or an insanely successful celebrity? How about the maker of the universe? That’s truly incredible…unthinkable.
It was not until the past few years that I truly resonated with the language that Paul uses to relate the hope he draws from what God has in store. Being a parent has greatly enhanced my hatred for sin and my longing for the creation God intended. I am not referring to the struggles of having 2 more sinners under my roof (though I would love to have perfect, selfless, Christ-centered children), but rather, I am referring the effects of the Fall on them. In particular, my youngest son Cohen has a rare form of dwarfism that causes all of the long bones in his body to be short and bowed. Because of the effect to his ribs, his lungs are also very small, so much so that he was given no medical hope of living while we were awaiting his birth. By the grace of God, Cohen is here with us, and despite the actual size of his chest, we often hear that he has “quite a set of lungs”.
While we were struggling and praying through the end of the pregnancy, Romans 8 so accurately depicted the way we were feeling, and still does. We long for the day that we are “set free from the bondage of corruption”, the day we see the “redemption of our bodies”. A normal part of praying with my oldest son, Cort, is to pray for God’s continued miraculous work in Cohen’s life. Last week, I told Cort that when Jesus returns and restores all thing, those who follow Christ will received new, glorified bodies, and that even Cohen’s body would be made perfect. He could hardly fathom the weight of that statement, and pretty much summed up the way I think about it with a pensive “Wow”. “Fellow heirs with Christ”…Wow. Perfect bodies…Wow. There is rarely a week that goes by where I do not have the opportunity to encourage someone with the story God has written through our experience with Cohen. My heart wells up with the message of redemption and glorification through Jesus.
I long for the day when the effects of the Fall no longer reach me or anyone I love. This of course extends beyond physical pain and corruption, and on to the struggle with sin. Part of living in a restored creation, with a glorified body, in the presence of God means that sin will no longer reign. I can’t imagine what it will be like to be so transformed that I no longer battle fear, or anger, or pride. Sanctification…being made into the likeness of Jesus…will be complete. I pray that God gives you glimpses of what he has in store for you if you are a follower of Jesus. I also pray that you would use that to move the message of the Gospel forward in the lives of those you know. We may just be “passing through”, but there is so much to accomplish while we await the “glory that is to be revealed”.
-Chris McGowan, Connecting Pastor
On May 22 as part of our Spring 2011 series on being Culturally Engaged, Matt Williams spoke about Personal Theology, specifically addressing eight aspects of sharing our faith. Through several blog posts, different members of our staff will be addressing each of these eight aspects from their own personal experiences. Click here for other posts in this series.
One of the things that no one ever warned me about was that after God saved me, things would actually get harder for me.As I look back now, it is so clear to me how blind I was to spiritual things.Even though I grew up in the church, I had no understanding of grace and I was completely wrapped up in a works-based religious system.Then, when God opened my eyes and allowed me to grasp his incredible grace, I got to experience his joy and I also got to experience conviction.I learned that God had created a new creation within me and I was completely forgiven, but I also learned that old habits don’t die easily.
I didn't have the language for it at the time, but over the past decade I have gotten to experience more and more of God’s sanctification.The truth of sanctification shows that God considered me holy as I stood before him at the moment of salvation, but then there is also a practical side of sanctification where God is progressively transforming me into the image of his Son and making me more and more holy every day.The image that we were originally created to bear has been marred by our sinful and rebellious hearts; but God’s eternal plan was to create a people to be pleasing to Him and glorify Him, and we as a people are being sanctified to restore that perfect image.
It hasn’t always meant this much to me.As one of my mentors once told me, the spiritual walk is not a sprint but instead a crawl.It has been very slow, but I can’t tell you how overjoyed I am to look back and see God using all of the circumstances in my life to transform me and make me more holy.The hurts and habits that used to bring me so much grief and pain are now markers of God’s grace.He has redeemed those areas of my life, helped me heal, and even replaced those sinful desires and affections with holy desires and affections.I am still certainly not perfect.I don’t think any of us will be before we stand face-to-face with our Creator, but it certainly changes my perspective and gives me hope to know that my Savior desires not only for me to be holy before Him but also to be able to live this life with holy desires by seeking Him above all things.This gives purpose to every good and bad circumstance in my life, and I’ve learned to take joy in the fact that God is transforming me into the image of his Son so that I can enjoy Him forever.I will probably look back to this point in another decade and realize just how immature and sinful I am right now. But how incredible it is to know that the eternal, Triune God has invited me in to his perfections and it is not based on who I am but what He has done for me.
On May 22 as part of our Spring 2011 series on being Culturally Engaged, Matt Williams spoke about Personal Theology, specifically addressing eight aspects of sharing our faith. Through several blog posts, different members of our staff will be addressing each of these eight aspects from their own personal experiences. Click here for other posts in this series.
Studying theology isn’t exciting for most people. This doctrine became real to me when I first heard the truth of the gospel in my mid 20’s. I’d grown up in a family that just attended church when we weren’t camping or travelling. I stopped attending as soon as I was old enough to get a Sunday morning paper route. I joined the Navy after high school and rarely gave spiritual matters any thought at all. When my tour was over I was soon married to a girl (Debbie) with a similar background to mine…very little church…lots of the world. One year into our marriage we were already struggling. Neither of us had the tools to build a healthy marriage. We had begun to search for some truth and peace when a friend from my Navy days came to visit. He seemed to have changed dramatically but I couldn’t put my finger on it. He spoke of a personal God and how he was experiencing Him day-to-day. He said he had come to know Jesus Christ. I had served with my friend around the world in all kinds of situations. He was in our wedding. I knew him well. The change in him was undeniable. Debbie and I trusted Christ that weekend. He said he had come to know Jesus Christ... The change in him was undeniable.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” Debbie and I began experiencing a dramatic re-creation in our lives. Our thoughts, desires, even our language were quickly and steadily changing. Sin didn’t sit as comfortably as it used to. We wanted to be with other Christ-followers. We’d both learned Bible stories as children but now the Scriptures came alive to us. We were both hungry to learn more. People who knew us were struck by the change…some were skeptical that it would last.
One commentator writes, “In the act of regeneration, God changes the nature of the person regenerated. The same soul exists, but differently. There is now a new spiritual component. It is an altogether new taste for the loveliness of spiritual things, especially as they are taught in God’s Word and personified by God’s Son.” Our lives have literally been transformed, and the power of God continues to change us today (like an extreme makeover of the heart). When we talk with people in a relationship crisis we tell them with great confidence that there is hope. We believe God can
On May 22 as part of our Spring 2011 series on being Culturally Engaged, Matt Williams spoke about Personal Theology, specifically addressing eight aspects of sharing our faith. Over the next few weeks, different members of our staff will be addressing each of these eight aspects from their own personal experiences. Click here for other posts in this series.
For the past few years, the following words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 have been completely blowing my mind:
“18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
Recently, Matt taught a sermon on the various aspects of salvation. He put forth eight different things Christ accomplished for us through his death and resurrection. As he taught, the idea that resonated most deeply with me was reconciliation.
One of the definitions for reconciliation provided by Webster describes it as “two conflicting parties restoring peace and harmony.” I love this definition because of the depth and meaning in the phrase “peace and harmony.”
You see, in God’s original design as we find it in Genesis 1 and 2, life was completely peaceful and harmonious. Life was better than good, – like nothing we can comprehend. At the center of God’s plan was the perfection of relationships. God, who always will be, was in perfect relationship with himself as a triune God. Adam and Eve had a perfect relationship with God, with each other, and with the entire created world. In scripture, the Hebrew word shalom, often translated peace, provides the most adequate descriptions used to illustrate this state of harmony. However, shalom (peace) loses its power when translated to English. In Hebrew, the word means much more; shalom communicates perfect interdependent harmony among all. Shalom is all things working together in unison to accomplish a common goal. There is nothing lacking! More than just the absence of something wrong, it is like a 100 piece orchestra functioning at full capacity, each member intricately dependent upon each other producing a glorious sound.
This was what God had in mind for the cosmos at the time of creation. Shalom was the way he would be best glorified and we would be best satisfied in Him. Unfortunately, as you know, the events of Genesis 3 took place and shalom was severed, everyone and everything now marching out of rhythm and playing out of tune.
Which brings us back to our word, reconciliation. Through the person and work of Jesus, God brought us back to himself. He not only forgave us and instilled peace, but also reconciled us to himself and restored relational harmony. He did not forgive us only to instill a vague sense of peace. He reconciled us to a living relationship with himself and restored relational harmony. We are now synced up with God in a way that makes everything else around us make sense. We can now choose to love, think, live, eat, drink and play the way were intended to all because of the gracious act of reconciliation. This is shalom being restored. Now all other relationships have the potential for, even the expectation of, reconciliation because of our Lord Jesus.
Miraculously, God didn’t stop there. As if that weren’t enough, Paul says in v18 that God is now using us to reconcile the world to himself! Are you kidding me? We messed it up! We chose to sin! We botched the entire deal, for ourselves and everyone around us. Man destroyed shalom so badly that nothing short of the gospel could fix it. And now God wants to use us to help be a part of the solution?
If we messed things up so badly, then why would God want to use us to help him as he continues to reconcile this fractured world back to himself?
The part that has been blowing my mind for over two years now is this: If we messed things up so badly, then why would God want to use us to help him as he continues to reconcile this fractured world back to himself? If we are so broken that God had to kill his only son for us, how is there anything of worth or value within us? Reconciliation is still the answer! Because we have been forgiven and reconciled, we are now bearers of shalom in the world. And although we still can’t play our instruments to their full potential, the gospel sets us on our way. We are on a path pointed toward perfect harmony, God is being honored, and his created order is responding.
I am so thankful for reconciliation! It is incredible to know that my sin has been completely dealt with and that my relationship with him is safe and secure and I have been completely restored to God through Jesus. And now, what’s more, all of the broken relationships that I am a part of, and mostly responsible for, can be reconciled because of God’s great plan for shalom.
- Jeremy Keever, The Institute & Discipleship, Kairos & Resources
On May 22 as part of our Spring 2011 series on being Culturally Engaged, Matt Williams spoke about Personal Theology, specifically addressing eight aspects of sharing our faith. Over the next few weeks, different members of our staff will be addressing each of these eight aspects from their own personal experiences. Click here for other posts in this series.
"He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."Colossians 1:13-14
It was June 1999 and I had been out of the Air Force for three months and was getting used to being home again. I had started attending the church I grew up in but I could tell something was missing. You see, I grew up in the church but the truths taught there never reached my heart. I can remember when I was baptized at age 16 thinking how much of a hypocrite I was. The only reason why I got baptized was because I couldn't think of a reason not to. Instead of identifying with Christ in his life, death, and resurrection, I really had no story to tell of a changed like because I had no relationship with Him.
Several years before, while in the military, I started to do a Bible Study with a friend. Sitting in the middle of the desert, in a tent, I was reading the Bible – as a historical document. Who were the Assyrians or the Babylonians? Even then I was missing the point. It was a historical commentary to me, a book to be read to see what had transpired in the past. My perspective was skewed and I missed the point at every turn.
On this June weekend, I was driving to a friend's wedding in western Pennsylvania.I started the traveling after work thinking it wouldn't be too long of a trip.Back then I had a four cylinder Jeep Wrangler without air conditioning.That first night I only drove for all of 3-1/2 hours, leaving myself an unexpected full day of driving the following morning.However, that day of quiet reflection was a turning point in my journey with Christ. It's amazing what can happen when the distractions of life quit being a factor.Here I was in the middle of the summer, no A/C, driving somewhere I wasn't sure even existed and God allowed me to look at my life with a critical eye.I could tell I was not doing things the way He wanted.I was having a sexual relationship with a girl from church.It had been going on for several weeks and the guilt was eating me up.Older members of the congregation would say how great it was that we were dating and all I could think was what a hypocrite I was.I pulled out my 3 pound cell phone (slight exaggeration but not much) and called her from the middle of West Virginia and told her I couldn't date her any longer and that it was my fault things had turned out like they had.
The next day was the rehearsal dinner. I had finally made it to the large metropolis of Seneca, PA. As I was driving back to the house where I was staying I had, the only way I know to describe it was, a vision. I saw Jesus, battered and bloody, abused and beaten. My whole life I had heard the story about how he died for me, but it is amazing how little those words can mean when you're reading it as a statement and not applying it to the brokenness in your own life. I started crying and had to pull off the road. All my life Jesus longed for me to come to him. He had freely sacrificed himself for me so that his Father could look upon me with love. Never before in my life had this truth pierced my heart. That kind of love is truly indescribable, but the image of what he endured for me is the constant reminder of the price He paid for me to be redeemed.
On May 22 as part of our Spring 2011 series on being Culturally Engaged, Matt Williams spoke about Personal Theology, specifically addressing eight aspects of sharing our faith. Over the next few weeks, different members of our staff will be addressing each of these eight aspects from their own personal experiences. Click here for other posts in this series.
The idea that most resonated with me was Election. Ephesians 1:4 says, “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes” (NLT). When you begin thinking about the practical implications of what it means to have a sovereign God choosing people before the world was created, it raises huge questions. A personal question might be “Why would God choose me?” A broader question might be “Why would God choose them?”
Why would God choose me?
Why would God choose them?
My teenage years were a turbulent time not only for me, but for my mom and dad as they struggled with how to parent a rebellious son. I remember the feeling of always choosing what was best for me. It seemed an easy way to live life when every decision could be answered with the question, “What do I want?” The answer always came in the form of whatever brought me comfort. I picked what I perceived to be most beneficial for me at the moment. The thing is, I don’t think I’m unique in that decision making process. I didn’t need anyone to train me on how to make decisions this way. It wasn’t something I had to learn; it just came naturally.
When we read scriptures like Ephesians 1 and Romans 8 that speak of God choosing people, we see that He is making decisions and moving toward things that are not necessarily easy or beneficial for Him. He doesn't make choices based upon His own comfort. Also, His decisions and actions are not based on our worth or merit. His ways are not our ways. I think that is why, when we are faced with the idea of election, we have a tendency to ask the “why?” questions: Why would God choose me? Why would God choose them?
When I look back at how God has worked in my life, I am humbled by the magnitude of His grace and forgiveness. I understand clearly that I do not deserve the blessings He has given me. I do not deserve to be forgiven. The reality is, I have offended Him and have spent a good part of my life rejecting Him. I continue to sin daily, yet His grace abounds toward me. He did not choose me because I was worthy. He did not choose me because it was beneficial for Him. He did not choose me because it was easy or because it cost Him nothing. He chose me and set His affections on me because He loves me. That is what He wanted to do and it gave Him great pleasure. Based on that, I think it makes more sense to stop asking “Why?” and start saying, “Thank you.”
-Jim Taylor, Minister of Baptism/Media
On May 22 as part of our Spring 2011 series on being Culturally Engaged, Matt Williams spoke about Personal Theology, specifically addressing eight aspects of sharing our faith. Over the next few weeks, different members of our staff will be addressing each of these eight aspects from their own personal experiences. Click here for other posts in this series.
As I considered the questions at the end of the teaching this past weekend, I’m so thankful that all of the theological aspects are true for me. However, pondering the second question, “Which one resonates the strongest with you?” there was no doubt… adoption came to my mind immediately. In Ephesians 1:5, it says, God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. (NLT) This verse is so comforting, so exciting, and so encouraging; the God of the universe is pursuing me! The words God decided in advance to adopt me into His own family, this is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure all speak into my life.
Much of my life I have felt like I don’t fit in. My parents got married just like most couples, to be together “‘til death do us part”, but that is not how it ended. As an adult looking back, I can see that I had a distorted view of what families should be like. As a kid, I had my own story of how it goes in a broken marriage. I longed for my parents to love each other. Families are made up of broken people in a broken world, and our family was definitely broken. The original first family, Adam and Eve, were broken, so why did I think it would be different for us? I felt abandoned as my father left our family to pursue other things. Though I had a father, I felt like an orphan in some ways. I felt fatherless, longing for a healthy father-daughter relationship and the protection and pursuit that comes with it.
Though I had a father, I felt like an orphan in some ways. I felt fatherless, longing for a healthy father-daughter relationship, and the protection and pursuit that comes with it.
As I came to faith, I began to understand that God ‘is a father to the fatherless’ and that He was pursuing me. He wanted me to be a part of a relationship with Him so much so that He sent Jesus to die on the cross to bridge that gap between Him and me and to cover my sin. And as we see in this verse in Ephesians, God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family. He planned on adopting me all along, regardless of my wounds and my thoughts on family. God wanted to pursue me, to protect me and even more than that, it gave Him great pleasure! Imagine that - it gave Him, the God of the universe, great pleasure to have a relationship with me, even at the cost of His Son.
God planned on adopting me all
along, regardless of my wounds
and my thoughts on family.
I do fit in, I’m part of a ‘perfect family’ and God is my Father, my Dad, the One who loves me and wants to be with me. Now in a family of my own, I am still broken and my family is still made up of broken people, in the same broken world that I grew up in. We each need Jesus every day; but He is the difference! As we each pursue a relationship with our Savior, he heals the brokenness and gives us hope each day. My desire is to be sensitive to those around me who feel unloved, lost, and fatherless because of the experiences and woundedness from my childhood that God continues to redeem. I am called to share God as I experience Him, as a father to the fatherless, with those around me who are also searching to be loved and accepted.